


Ad Infinitum

by shuofthewind



Series: Pugna Pro Insons Insontis [2]
Category: Black Butler, Kuroshitsuji
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Background - Freeform, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Crack, Lots of OCs - Freeform, M/M, Non-Canon Relationship, Omake, Shameless Smut, Slice of Life, Underage Prostitution
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 13:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1512983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shuofthewind/pseuds/shuofthewind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gifted to all of those who read Domina Esques. A collection of drabbles and oneshots, canon or wild AU, of all pairings and all characters. Zodiac backgrounds! Omakes! Deleted scenes! The works. Mostly random flights of whimsy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Circus

**Author's Note:**

> Tite: Ad Infinitum.  
> Rating: T/T+. May eventually progress to M.
> 
> Summary: Gifted to all of those who read Domina Esques. A collection of drabbles and oneshots (DE canon and AU) of all pairings and all characters. Zodiac backgrounds! Omakes! The works. Mostly random flights of whimsy.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji, or any other works of fiction that may be used within the contents of this collection. I do own the original characters.
> 
> Author's Note: It's been a long time since I looked at Domina Esques, nearly a year, and what an eventful year it was. Though it may seem like I'm attempting to kill myself with all the projects I have going currently (and I probably will come to think of it) I'm also in my last semester of uni as of the week after next, and I feel like I kind of need something to let loose with. Ad Infinitum will probably turn out to be that.
> 
> There is no set schedule for this collection, and I will take requests. Whether or not I will keep up with those requests in a timely matter is a subject for debate, but I'll try to get to them all.
> 
> This collection will include AUs, AU pairings, slash pairings, character backgrounds, sequel bits, random fluff, random angst, and blood, amongst other things. The title of the collection means Forever, or Again and again, and that's basically what this story is. So. Have fun.
> 
> Prompt: circus. For the sharp-eyed and wide-read, you will recognize the Cirque from The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. (I don't own.) Magical AU. Any French grammatical mistakes are my own.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They'd set up the Cirque des Rêves in a small clearing outside of Calais, where the train tracks ran through a forest that had been left untouched by time.

 

 

The train compartment was hot and sweaty as Elizabeth took a deep breath, and shimmied into her uniform. Long and leggy, it clung to her like a second skin. Good for aerodynamics. Bad for modesty. She zipped up the back, checked her reflection in the mirror, and then ran her fingers one last time through her hair (Paula had offered to do it, and the elegant, half-collapsed updo was perfect for the Romeo and Juliet act she would be doing later) and fixed her mask over her eyes. She was all in red and black, her mask a series of diamonds; her costume was checkered, like a harlequin's. She drew a breath and let it out, pinching her cheeks, fluffing her hair again. Her lipstick was stuck to her teeth. She scrubbed it off with a napkin, and tossed it into the trash.

There was a rap, and then Snake stuck his head into her compartment. He had a half-mask and gloves on, to hide the scales, and his eyes glimmered in the candlelight. "Ready?" he asked, and Elizabeth held out a hand to him. A viper crossed his fingers, wound up her arm, and settled in the hollow of her throat. She stroked Emily, and then took Snake's hand again. His fingers tightened around hers.

"Ready," she said.

They'd set up the Cirque des Rêves in a small clearing outside of Calais, where the train tracks ran through a forest that had been left untouched by time. The moon had set, the customers were coming, and it was time to play their parts. Lizzy tucked herself closer to Snake, slipping an arm around his waist, and he copied her. As the only other person in the troupe who Snake trusted with his serpents, they'd become a walking attraction, wandering the red and black tents with vipers and milk snakes peeping out of collars and sleeves until one of the main events began. Emily ran her snub nose over Elizabeth's jugular vein, and nearby, a woman dressed all in green shuddered and pointed with her fan. Elizabeth leaned closer to Snake, went up on her tiptoes, and whispered, "There aren't many tonight."

"No," he said, his lips barely moving, "but the Comte is coming tonight, I hear."

"The Comte?"

He smiled, and put his lips close to her ear. "The Comte de Fantômes."

"Phantomhive?" she repeated, and her heart skipped a beat in her throat. They had been on a long tour around Europe, from Calais to St. Petersburg and back again, and she hadn't seen Ciel Phantomhive since she'd left him in a party in London to join the Cirque. Elizabeth put a hand up to the snake at her throat, and Emily's tongue flickered against her fingers. "Oh."

"Do you know him?" asked Snake, as they took a turn by the Nightmare Tent. Through the gap in the cloth she could see Sebastian, his arms wide, cloak rippling, as he wove his spells.

"No," said Elizabeth, and left it at that.

The main tent was billowing, already spilling out the sides with people, when Snake and Elizabeth joined the rest of the troupe by the back entrance. Theodore Parker and his sister were practicing their knife magic, flicking blades in and out of visibility. Colleen, the contortionist, was upside-down and backwards, only propped up on one hand and the very tip of her big toe. "Toff," she said, as Lizzy and Snake came forward, and she unfolded herself. "Black's in a right tizzy. Apparently someone he knows is here."

"The Comte," said Elizabeth, "I know," and Snake slipped away from her to go stand near Finny the strong man and Maylene the sharpshooter. Paula, the stage manager, was ticking their names off on her roster, and she waggled her fingers at Elizabeth, who waved back. She'd brought Paula with her from London, and despite everything, the woman had stuck with her. She put a hand up to her throat, winding Emily around her fingers, and drew the snake away from her neck. "Sebastian will be furious if we make a mistake tonight."

Colleen scoffed. "We never make mistakes."

"Regardless." She waved a hand at that. "The Comte is our biggest sponsor. Be careful. ", and out of the corner of her eye she saw Theo wrinkle his nose. They'd picked up Theo and Felicity in Vienna, a pair of street performers very far from home "We need to stay focused."

"Yes,  _mum_ ," said Colleen, and did a handspring to get away from her. Snake came close, and Elizabeth let Emily slide from her hand to his again, a whisper of magic between her fingers.

Elizabeth peeked into the tent. Sebastian was starting his announcements. " _Mesdames et Messieurs, bienvenue au Cirque des Rêves! Tout d'abord_ —"

"We're up," said Theodore. Felicity threw a knife up into the air, and it vanished against the stars. Elizabeth looked up at him, frowning a little.

"Don't show off just because Ciel is here, Theo."

"Wouldn't dream of it, darlin' partner mine," said Theodore. His eyes fairly snapped sparks through his mask. Lizzy tugged at his hand, and he bent down and pressed his cheek to hers, a gesture of good luck that they always did. In the tent, she could hear Sebastian. " _Dame de l'air, Elizabet, et son partenaire—_ "

"Don't drop me," she said.

"Never would," he replied, and then they were through into the big top, and the crowd was screaming, and she could feel Ciel's eyes on her.

Elizabeth leapt up into the air, propelled from the ground like a springboard through a mix of her magic and Theodore's, and the wind whipped her breath away.


	2. Somniloquy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You need to sleep in a bed, you know," he said, but she didn't wake, only tilted her head so he could just barely make out the lashes on her cheek, gold-dusted black, black-tinted gold. "You're going to feel horrible."

There was no answer from behind the door. Ciel rapped it with his knuckles again, pursing his lips, and glanced behind him, at the door where Sebastian had disappeared. It had been a long time since he'd been to see Elizabeth on his own, and judging by the impertinent questions Sebastian had been slipping his way lately, this was an elaborate plot on the part of his butler to get them to reconcile faster.

It wasn't as though they were fighting, exactly. Elizabeth had asked for space. He was giving it to her, because to be frank, he needed space as well. But there were times, even now—especially now—that he needed her help more than he needed her distance, and this was one of them.

There was a difference between their jobs. The Queen depended on him to clean up the messes she couldn't get near. So far as he knew, Elizabeth had not been incorporated into the position of Watchdog—even if she insisted on assisting him whenever she could—but the idea that she was standing aside and doing nothing was ludicrous. Victoria had been calling Elizabeth to her side more often than was normal, especially for a newly made knight. He wondered if the queen wasn't giving Elizabeth assignments of her own, not just clean-ups, but actual investigations into problems that the Watchdog, either through reputation or lack of interest, would not deign to take. All he knew at this point was that Elizabeth was coming to know more about the dark than he'd ever expected or wanted, and it still made him deeply uncomfortable.

Ciel knocked again. There was no answer. When he tried the knob, it turned. He glanced over his shoulder again, and then opened the door.

She was asleep. She'd taken her hair down at some point—considering it was only just an hour past dawn, probably in the middle of the night—and it tangled over her face, a few strands fluttering against her lips as she breathed. She was wearing Edward's borrowed clothes again, he realized. Trousers that were too big, a shirt that was too loose. It hid her, made her younger. Ciel shut the door behind him with a click, and took a step closer, two. It felt as though there was a tie knotted in his belly, dragging him forward. She was working on something to do with Spitalfields. Names, photographs, drawings. Women and men. Mostly children. Mostly mixed-blood children, judging by their eyes, their hair, their skin, even in the grey tones of the photographs. He wondered what was happening to them, where they'd come from, what their problems were. He wondered if Elizabeth knew each of them by name yet.

She'd put up a map, too, he realized. Pins dug into the wall, bits of yarn—red, green, gold—roped between them. She'd scribbled over different corners of the map in penciled Italian.  _Pezzo de merde._

He was reaching out to touch the map when Elizabeth mumbled something, and shifted her arms. She was holding something in one hand, a necklace. The skin on the back of his neck went hot when he realized it was the one she wore the ring on, the ring she didn't yet wear, wouldn't confirm that she would, but kept close to her heart all the same.  _She must have been holding it when she fell asleep._

Ciel glanced at the door again. Then at the window. The curtains were drawn. He drew a breath, and let it out, leaning against the desk beside her. When he put one hand down, his fingers tangled accidentally-on-purpose in her hair. "You need to sleep in a bed, you know," he said, but she didn't wake, only tilted her head so he could just barely make out the lashes on her cheek, gold-dusted black, black-tinted gold. "You're going to feel horrible."

She murmured something so low and soft that he thought he'd imagined it, and CIel reached out, and gently brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek. She felt like he remembered, human, warm.

A smile flickered on her lips, and she almost seemed to lean into the touch. "Ciel," she said, and this time it wasn't his own fantasies. It was her, her voice, her smile. "Ciel."

He swallowed hard. Then, carefully, he pulled away from her, stepping out of reach.

Ciel left his coat draped around her shoulders and a note pinned to her corkboard.

_You talk in your sleep. –CP_


End file.
